Aricrauer Velkt
::"You've got me wrong, governor. It's not that I like killin' people. I just don't feel like dyin' today." A rough darkrunner hailing from southern Kyrol, Aricrauer Velkt is a driven, determined woman whose interests align with whatever will keep her younger sisters safe. Though she has quite an elaborate and expensive-looking sword, she seems to prefer a gun as her weapon of choice. Background According to what she's said of her childhood, Aricrauer's mother died to a hate crime committed by a ligvoel when Aricrauer was thirteen. Following this, Aricrauer's father spent more time away from home to work for the Veriol Alliance in order to support his family. Several years later, her father didn't come back home, and she and her sisters found his sword, the godslayer Feivelkt, on their doorstep. Until many years later, Aricrauer would not find out that her father had died at some point and ended up sealed inside the sword. Aricrauer has said little of her life after acquiring Feivelkt, but it is also known that during this timeframe, her younger sister Brook attempted to kill herself and was subsequently hospitalized. Baffled and unsure of how to react, Aricrauer has since been sensitive to the topics of self-harm and suicide, possibly the only line she draws between acceptable and unacceptable violence (other than cold-blooded torture). Although Aricrauer was resistant to the idea, she eventually found employment in the Veriol Alliance like her father before her in order to support her sisters. Though mindful of her father's fate, she had to use the clout that the Velkt family name would give her in order to ascend the ranks of the Veriol Alliance and get as high of a paying job as she possibly could. First Dream of Arplakoon According to Varthenral, Aricrauer originally survived the Fourth Galactic War and the resulting Fall of the Ealdremen Galaxy; she had, in fact, missed most of the lead-up to both events, because she had declined the Veriol Alliance's offers to send her to Sabaria, instead preferring to stay close to home. However, she was emotionally distraught and broken due to the earlier death of her sisters, and had been about to be captured by the "cloaked ones" that now ruled the lands before Varthenral intervened and saved her. Working together to survive, they grew closer, but Aricrauer was always looking at something past Varthenral and never viewed her as anything more than a friendly face in a hostile land. After years of searching, they found that a single godslaying weapon had been undiscovered by the galaxy at large before the Fourth Galactic War: Ganrikkat, the Timeripper. They sought out Ganrikkat because of its potential to change the past; with it, they could prevent this future from ever occurring. However, as they arrived in the area where Ganrikkat slept, cloaked ones found them. Varthenral ran for her life, and Aricrauer tried to hold them off, but ultimately died. Second Dream of Arplakoon Sabaria: The Monster Within In Arplakoon's second dream, Aricrauer was warned in advance of Rhyser City's bombing by Varthenral, and she accepted the Veriol Alliance's mission in Rhyser City as a result (whereas in the first dream, she had rejected it). Here, she met the player characters for the first time. However, she found herself betrayed by the Veriol Alliance while in Rhyser City; the mission had been a suicide mission all along, intended for Aricrauer to die so that the Veriol Alliance could obtain Feivelkt. In the end, Aricrauer failed to stop Rhyser City from being bombed on account of spending the bulk of her time either fighting off people in her way or trying to escape from her captors. Aricrauer was shot by Ewa Lavriskla towards the end of the campaign, rendering her mostly inactive for the remainder of it. She helped talk down Fiqar and Dojan-ru of Qardoj from attacking the Alamo Empire head-on, also convincing them to abandon their quest for Feivelkt. Kes Joshawk: The Emperor Returns Aricrauer was present during the events of Kes Joshawk, making her a witness to the return of High Emperor Derrin Stormwing IX. She went by "Aric" and used a mundane sword to avoid calling attention to herself, though Jaspur Quellstone still saw her use Feivelkt at its full power when she thought nobody else was around. Tumoria: The Emerald Meteors Aricrauer encountered Varthenral once more during the Tumoria campaign, though she was rather cold towards her, especially after Varthenral used a spell on a tumorian looter that had stolen Ganrikkat. The spell caused the looter to attempt to kill herself; though Varthenral's logic had solely been that the looter would attempt to use Ganrikkat to harm herself and thus reveal the stolen weapon, the events reminded Aricrauer too much of Brook's attempted suicide. Aricrauer lashed out at Varthenral and was even more hostile towards her for the remainder of the campaign. Aricrauer's knowledge of the Veriol Alliance came in handy when it became apparent that Zervat Aniklý, one of the Veriol Council, was involved in trying to obtain the Ganrikkat that resided atop Vzástrov Se. Lyzots: The Piper's Call After following Astruc home to visit his family, Aricrauer ended up embroiled in the events of the Lyzots campaign when several of the Piper's cultists wounded Astruc to the point where he had to remain in the hospital. Seeking revenge and wanting their apparent horrific sacrifices stopped, Aricrauer ventured into the jungle with Five, Ezwell, and Oscare to locate the Piper and his zealot minions. When Rotus attacked the temple, he and Set Sietsan stole Feivelkt from Aricrauer (along with Oladani and, eventually, Zwehan Kut from Ezwell). Broken in spirit, Aricrauer only got worse due to the revelation that Zwehan Kut had the soul of a doctor trapped inside it. She conversed with Zwehan Kut, during which the soul inside it presumably explained that every godslaying weapon held the soul of a previous wielder, and she realized that Feivelkt almost certainly had the spirit of her deceased father within it. After she and Astruc's mother brought Astruc home to recover, Aricrauer took Ganrikkat from him and set out to find Rotus. Drio: The Lost Promise Although Aricrauer had been absent from matters concerning her former companions, many of which were now known as the End Corps, Alvarus the Netherlord indicated that Aricrauer was currently en route to the planet Estvoled after leaving Gerualdi. Meta Aricrauer, unlike her sisters and their friends, was created specifically for Chrono Stars, although it was originally thought that she would only serve as an introduction to the godslayers, Varthenral, and the imminent Fourth Galactic War. Her expanded role in the plot was wholly a product of a player character taking a liking to her and befriending her, bringing her out of the Sabaria plot and into the overarching story. Aricrauer being the apparent sole survivor of Rotus' rise to power in the first dream of Arplakoon (Lexa's fate being unknown, Brook dying during the Kyrol campaign, and Gwyna dying during the Fourth Galactic War) is a reference to how she is effectively a "foreigner" to the story. Whereas Lexa, Brook, and Gwyna have always been part of the Rotus story, Aricrauer was not supposed to be there; consequently, she survived Rotus. Aricrauer's first name means "family protector" in Scheli-dren, referring, of course, to her primary motivation throughout Chrono Stars. Category:Characters Category:Ealdremen Non-Player Characters